The feathers and the plume or Alexandre Herculano’s representative monarchy

Abstract

The representative monarchy model proposed by Alexandre Herculano has been examined by various scholars of the history of liberalisms in nineteenth-century Portugal. The present article intends to deepen in this subject matter, analyzing the place of municipality and municipal freedom in the Herculanian representative system. I argue here that, within the framework of Chartist liberalism, the Portuguese historian conceived the relationship between the State and the municipality in organicist and non-functionalist terms. First, I locate Herculano’s political thought in the context of Portuguese Liberalism and Chartism. Then, I study his opposition to liberal centralism, regarded as the heir of functionalist absolutism. Next, I examine the municipal «character» he attributed to Portuguese society and I describe the kind of freedom he associated the municipality. In the end, I discuss his definition of freedom as representation and the organic link he established between the municipality, the parliament and the monarchy. This article seeks to encourage discussion about the key concepts of political liberalisms in Portugal during the nineteenth century.